Successful change management requires a growth mindset

Believe Perform recently tweeted (@BelievePHQ) this graphic. I’m a big fan of this model and try to practice it in my work. When we are working with change, a growth mindset allows us to embrace the change as an exciting learning opportunity. Encouraging a growth mindset through your organisation’s culture will allow you to become an organisation that can adapt and grow with agility.

Embrace challenge – this should be easy for high performing individuals and organisations that are always seeking to innovate, learn and grow.

Learn from feedback and criticism – change leaders need to have their ears open throughout any process of change. Ensuring there are channels for feedback and, yes, criticism, shows trust and respect for your staff and builds engagement with the process of change.

Talent can be developed – change is a great opportunity for rising stars to shine. Giving high performers new and stretching opportunities through your change programme increases engagement and allows you to develop your top talent.

More effort – implementing change generally means you are asking even more of your teams. As well as expecting this it is really important to recognise and reward it. Make sure people know why the extra effort is so important for the organisation (and ideally link it to 3).

Keep trying, never give up – making a change challenges us at a sub-conscious level and it can be easy to find reasons not to do it. It can be easier to resist and cling to the status quo. Building the resilience to allow you and your teams to keep going through these strong responses will lessen the urge to resist.

Persist in the face of setbacks – when you enter a period of change, you enter the unknown. You take risks. Sometimes you will get it wrong. This is all learning for you and your organisation. Learn from it and grow.

Inspired by others success – be inspired by your biggest competitor, aim high, expect your teams to do the same and change will become something to look for rather than to fear.

Learn from failure – when new initiatives don’t deliver the expected benefits, never see the outcome as a wasted effort. Don’t look for who to blame. Review, learn, adapt, grow. “The only failure is giving up, the rest is just data gathering” Jen Sincero

This will take time and hard work – don’t expect overnight transformation. Prepare, plan, develop a structure, communicate, engage, listen and, over time, change.

I want to keep learning – if you embody this, if your organisation embodies this through its culture, change will be an integral part of your operation because no one will want to stand still.